The Colors of Magic (Draco Malfoy)
by OMGThePotatoQueen
Summary: It has been five years since the defeat of Voldemort and Draco Malfoy is doing his best to put the past behind him. It is a a task that is easier said then done however as he faces his own demons as well as the struggle to be seen past the faults of his father. When he runs into an old friend a change occurs, one he never really saw coming. Draco/oc Rated M mainly for language
1. Chapter 1 Hello Again

The Leaky Cauldron had in the past few years become a place Draco Malfoy found himself quite often. It was quiet, most of the time, and it allowed him to sit and drown his thoughts without having to deal with the ever so present echo of his fathers voice that never seemed to leave his family home. He was an adult now. He lived off his hos fortune really. Trading stocks and estate that had once been controlled by his father. He still lived with his mother, or he supposed his mother lived with him. It was a large home and to be honest he saw her just about as often as he would had either of them lived separately. Life was no so bad, but it was not all that good either. Being the son of a death eater, as well as technically being a death eater himself made life less than accommodating after the fall of the dark lord. Not to say that Draco was unhappy at the dark lords defeat, but that many people around him felt the need to scoff in distaste when they now heard the name Malfoy.

"You really need a hobby." A voice suddenly spoke. Draco turned his head to see the face of a woman he had not seen in years.

"Hello Stella." Draco greeted quietly.

"Hello again Draco. It's been a while."

Stella Simmons was a lovely, blonde Ravenclaw that had somehow managed to befriend Draco in third year. She stood their looking exactly the same and yet somehow completely different. She wore a light brow trench coat. It was unbuttoned and revealed her black blouse and gray dress pants. Her hands were covered, as they usually were, by a pair of brown leather gloves.

Draco smirked and look down. "Yeah...yeah I haven't seen you since..."

 _Draco stood next to his mother and father, whom both gripped him in relief. It was clear to him that they had thought he may have died in what was left of Hogwarts. As the dark lord spoke, Draco's eyes scanned the crowed till he found her. Dried blood crusted on her forehead, he clothes dirty and tethered. She looked so tiered and so sad._

"Yeah...I know." Stella said nodding. "So, what have you been up to?" She asked casually.

Draco swallowed and blinked as he tried to come up with something of any interest.

"I..nothing..I mean, I..." Pathetic.

"Well you should get a hobby. I see you down here all the time, you clearly have some free time on your hands. Do something with it."

His brows furrowed as he looked at her. "You see me all the time? But you never-"

Stella shrugged. "You always look like you have a lot on your mind. Never seemed like a good time."

"Why now then?"

A breath like laugh escaped her lips. "I don't know really."

A smile crept onto Draco's face causing Stella to now be the one to look at him confused.

"What?"

"I haven't heard you laugh in 6 years. I missed it I guess."

Tilting her head to the side Stella rolled her eyes and smiled.

"You look well, what have you been up to?" Draco asked, wanting to know with more desire than he expected about where she had been for the past few years.

Stella finally sat down at the table across from him and took a deep breath.

"Well, after the war, I finished my studies. I got married, started working for the Ministry, got divorced-"

"You got married?" Draco asked almost whispering.

"And divorced." Stella confirmed. Her hands folded together tightly, giving away that it was a touchy subject for her.

"What do you do in the Ministry?" Draco asked, changing the subject to Stella's relief.

"Nothing you would find interesting. I work in the Misuse of Muggle artifacts office."

"Your right, that's not at all interesting." Smirked Draco.

Stella rolled her eyes. "Well, I like it. Better than doing nothing all day like some people."

"To each their own." Retorted Draco, as he held up his drink to her before taking a sip.

Biting her lip Stella once again nodded and smiled.

"It was nice seeing you again Draco. I mean that."

She then got up from the table and headed for the door. Draco threw back the last of his drink before following after her.

"Stella wait!" He called, causing her to pause and turn around.

"It was nice seeing you too. I mean that. Can we do it again sometime?"

"Sure Draco." She then handed him a card. It was her business card for work, but it was something.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

 _"Malfoy and Simmons." Professor Snape called with a lazy tone._

 _Draco thumped into his seat and watched as his partner made her way over to join him. She was a Ravenclaw, he had determined from her robes. Great, all he needed was some know it all trying to tell him how to brew a potion. Her presence took him by suprise when she plopped down beside him and gave him a friendly smile._

 _"Hey, hows it goin?"_

 _He gave her a disturbed look. Did she not know who he was? How did she come across the idea that she could address him so casually. She continued to look at him awaiting his looked down at her extended hand, which was covered with little black gloves but only sneered at her._

 _"Don't get in my way."_

 _Simmons raised an eyebrow before holding her hands up in surrender._

 _"Well pardon the hell out of me."_

 _American, Draco could now tell. Simmons said nothing more and Draco listened to Snape give instruction on the potion they would be brewing today. A confusing Concoction. It always seemed to amaze Draco when he would find out the names of certain potions. You had potions with odd names like Polyjuice which if you had never heard of it, you would have no idea what it was for, and then you had potions with names like Confusing Concoction, which all in all was rather self explanatory._

 _"Shall I get our ingredients or do you want to?" Simmons asked._

 _"Go for it." Mumbled Draco, who just wanted to get this over with._

 _When she returned with the ingredients, Simmons sat the on their table and opened her book._

 _"Alright, it says here we need to bring Water to a boil and separate the Barbs from the Jabberknoll Feathers."_

 _"Yeah, I can read Simmons." Draco snapped as he began dong as the instructions said._

 _Simmons pursed her lips and her foot which was wrapped abound her other one at the ankle began to twitch._

 _"Listen," She began with a deep breath. "I don't know what has you in such a pissy mood, but I got nothin' to do with it. So take your attitude and leave it at the door. Honestly, this is not a hard potion to make, if you want to do it by yourself, just say so, but I am your partner till Snape says other wise and I'm going to offer my help."_

 _Giving her a side glance, Draco weighed his options. Having her help was not actually an issue. She probably knew what she was doing and that meant less work for himself. If Draco was honest with only himself, he really just wanted to make the point that he didn't **need** her help. She seemed to get that though._

 _"When it starts to boil start to stir it clockwise twelve times." he permitted. Simmons gave him a thumbs up and small nod._

 _"Whats with the gloves?" He finally asked breaking the silence._

 _Simmons shrugged. "It's cold."_

 _"No it isn't." Draco argued._

 _"It is to me. Does it matter?"_

 _"Whatever."_

 _When time was up, Snape walked around to each group. When he got to Simmons and Malfoy's potion, he stired it around giving it a closer look._

 _"Very good Mr. Malfoy, Miss Simmons." He then continued on to the next group._

 _As they packed up their things Draco noticed Simmons smiling at him. It seemed genuine, which only confused him more, being that they really had not had any conversation, and the bit of conversation they did have was not what he would quite call friendly._

 _"This was nice. I mean that. I hope we can do it again."_

 _"Be partnered in potions?" Draco asked her in response to her strange statement._

 _"Succeed as partners in potions."_

 _"Sure Simmons." He said uncertain. Her friendliness was somewhat unsettling for Draco. He thought she was being weird, but maybe he just wasn't used to someone he didn't really know talking to him like that. Like they looked forward to his company. She then turned around and exited the room with the rest of their peers, Draco soon making his way out as well._

Alright so I happen to have this idea in my head and had to get it out. I hope you guys like it, I dont really know how popular Harry Potter type stories are these days. Let me know in the comments below what you think so far!


	2. Chapter 2 Good Person

Draco subconsciously squeezed and his own hand as his eyes remained focused on the floor in front of him. He sat in a dimly lit room, slouching in a small armchair surrounded by ten others. No one their looked comfortable. Not because of the small wooden arm chairs they all resided in, but because of what they were in this room for. This was a room of Death Eaters. Ex-Death Eaters in fact. You would think that being surrounded by people who have similar trauma as you, for very similar reasons as you, that it would make it easier to talk about. It wasn't though. These men and women once held a title that administrated fear and radiated power. It was a title that held no room for weakness. And although these ex-Death Eaters wanted nothing more than to erase the title they had been given, to remove the mark that had been permanently embedded onto their skin, to move forward...talking about it seemed impossible.

"This is a safe place." Leopold, the man running this little program began. Leopold was an older man in his sixties or seventies. He, like the rest of them, wore a dark mark. His gray hair, that was more so white than gray, Draco supposed, was neatly brushed back, and his matching beard trimmed giving him a noticeable jaw line. When Leopold had first gathered the group in front of him, he had said the same words. "This is a safe place." It was clear that they did not all believe him. Leopold told them the story of his own dark mark and his time serving under that dark lord. He had met Tom Riddle when they both had still been at Hogwarts. Tom had come to influence most of his Slytherin house and Leopold was no different. It was a different time of course. Segregation between the Wizarding world and the muggle world had always been in place for both the safety of not only muggles but witches and wizards as well. The Salem Witch Trials had taught them all that much. At the time, everything Tom had argued seemed to make sense. Magical beings were superior to non magical ones and everyone needed to know that. Muggles on their own had discriminated power and rank among their own people based off much more trivial things such as the color of ones skin, or religious preference. Petty things such as that did not matter to Tom. All that mattered was that people knew their place based off the magic running through their veins. Anyone who thought otherwise was a fool.

In time, Leopold found Tom's ideals shifting. It was no longer about taking the magical community out of hiding and into the open for muggles to praise, but about destroying any link to muggles at all. Having magic was not enough, not if you had non magical blood in your genes. Muggle born witches and wizards were not witches and wizards at all but thieves of magic. People who did not deserve to have it and by being born into such a life must be eliminated for crimes they committed unwillingly. Leopold told them how when he tried to back out he was punished with the cruciatus curse. That it was enough to persuade him to never think such thoughts again. He told them how he was weak, and that he wished he could have done differently, but that he supposed none of that mattered anymore.

"Often it isn't the initiating trauma that creates seemingly insurmountable pain, but the lack of support after."

He had created this space, in hopes that ex-Death Eaters like himself, would be able to find the support they needed, because he knew it would be something difficult to come by from those who had been on the opposite end of the war.

"Lets start as always, shall we? Hello. My name is Leopold Withers and I used to be a Death Eater."

"Hello Leopold." The room echoed. Clockwise to him the next person began.

"Hello. My name is Anthony-"

"Why are we doing this?" Another interrupted. Draco looked across from him to see Theodore Nott to be the one to speak out. In the group, Theo was the only one Draco recognized. His short brown hair sat on his forehead looking wet, probably from sweating. It was something Draco noticed about him during their time in school. Theodore often sweat when he became nervous or stressed. More so than the average person.

"Why are we doing what son?" Leopold asked patiently.

"Introducing ourselves? We already know. Everyone already knows."

Draco glanced at Leopold who gave him a gentle smile.

"Because it is not for them, it's for you."

"I already know-"

"I know you know. But you need to be able to say it." Leopold turned to Anthony and nodded for him to continue.

"Hello my name is Anthony Kail, and I used to be a Death Eater."

"Hello Anthony." The room echoed.

And so went the circle went on. Andrew, Bethany, Carl, Donovan, Willis, Monica, Theodore, Franklin, Josephine. All the names seemed to mold together into background noise until there was no more talking. A nudge with an elbow brought Draco's eyes up from the ground. Everyone was looking at him now. He cleared his throat and adjusted himself in his seat.

"Um, right. Hello, my name is Draco Malfoy and I..." He brought his had up to his arm and placed over the spot where his mark resided beneath his shirt sleeve. "and I used to be a Death Eater." It was choked out, like he might throw up if he said it any slower.

"Hello Draco." The room echoed.

OoOoOoOoOoOOoOOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

 _"Draco, are you alright?" Stella asked, looking up from her book. Draco breathed in the fresh air and the smell of the black lake. The two sat on a blanket near the edge of a cliff, the black lake blow them. Draco had been given a task. A task he could not share with the one person he truly wanted to share it with. He feared her reaction almost as much as the task itself, thus chose to hide it from her as long as possible._

 _"Yeah, I'm fine."_

 _Stella nudged him with her shoulder causing him to look at her. The concern in her eyes was evident and Draco felt guilty for being the one to cause it._

 _"You can talk to me you know."_

 _He gave her half smile and nodded. "I know...I know. I have some stuff going on, but I can handle it Stella. I got this. I promise."_

 _She sighed a little and looked rather unconvinced. She gave him one last glance before returning to her book. Draco couldn't let her sooth him with her words because if she knew what was going on with him she wouldn't want to. So instead he settled for her soothing him with her presence._

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOOoOoOoOo

Walking up to a help desk before he lost his confidence, Draco leaned in to speak to the receptionist. Entry into the ministry itself had been time consuming, as security for the place had been made slightly stricter after Voldemort, as well as after finding out that one of the important head figures, Umbridge, had been involved with him. At the desk a woman, who looked in her late sixties turned her attention to him. Her gray hair pulled in a tight bun looked almost like it was giving her a face lift and Draco gave her an uneasy smile as she looked at his through her glasses that rest toward the end of the bridge of her nose.

"How may I help you?" She asked, Her voice much kinder than her appearance.

"Uh, yes, I am here to see Stella Simmons."

"Do you have an appointment?"

Draco shook his head no. "This is a social visit, I didn't think to make one, if shes busy I can come back some other time."

"Name?" She asked him.

"Draco," Draco cleared his throat. "Draco Malfoy." The woman paused a moment, registering the name in her head. For a moment Draco thought she might turn him away.

"One moment please." With that the woman picked up a black old fashion telephone and punched a few numbers.

"Hello, Ms Simmons, I have a...Mr. Malfoy here to see you...alright."

The woman hung up the phone and slid a piece of paper to Draco.

"This is your pass, Mrs. Simmons is located on level 2 in the-"

"Misuse of Muggle artifacts office."

The woman gave him what seemed to him like a forced smile.

"Yes."

Taking the pass Draco quickly made his was to the lifts and got inside one. Two other people stood with him as well an escort. Draco gave the floor and without much warning the lift took off in a seemingly random direction. When a voice announced they had reached the second level, Draco squeezed by the others and stepped off the lift. The main hall was dark and quiet and if Draco had not known any better he would have assumed no one was there. This was not the first time Draco had been here, however that was years ago and his confidence in finding Stella without having to find someone else to help guide him was slowly dwindling. Soon enough however, Draco could hear a muffled sound coming from the direction he was heading. The sound was odd to him, it sound something like...music perhaps? Looking at the door in front of him, the words _'Misuse of Muggle artifacts office'_ as well as ' _Head Perkins, assistant Simmons'_ were engraved onto plaques attached to it. Slowly opening the door, Draco's ears were filled with a loud harmony and the voice of a man singing.

 _"Say it ain't so! I will not go! Turn the lights off! Carry me home! Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah!"_

Stella stood in front of a filing cabinet bobbing her head to the music, mouthing the words as they played. Draco raised en eyebrow at her, unsure of what to do. Luckily he didn't have to do anything because as she looked up from her files, Stella noticed him and quickly went to turn off the music.

"There you are. What took you so long?" She asked crossing her arms with a small smile. Her blonde hair that she usually wore down was in a neat up-do, showing off her neck which showed off a thin, gold chain necklace with a blue gem attached to it that look vaguely familiar to Draco. She wore a simple navy dress that complemented her figure but all in all was not much to look at, with a pair of little black pumps. What surprised him a little was that she currently wasn't wearing gloves, though he could see them resting on the desk she was standing next to. In all the years he has known Stella, he had only seen her without gloves three times. The first was in during Care of magical creatures in fourth year, the second was when Umbridge forced her to remove them in class, and the third, well the third was when he was in the hospital wing in sixth year after Harry Potter came after him in the bathroom.

 _"Oh Draco..." He could hear her voice call out to him. It was a whisper but it seemed to echo around him in the empty infirmary. That was when he felt it. Her small, warm hand grasping his own cold, larger one. As he looked at her through the crack of his eyes, he watched as he she stared down at their hands. In a moment it was as if touching him had burned her, as she pulled her hand away and brought it to her chest, cradling it with her other hand. Her eyes, now brimmed with tears looked at him, and he knew she knew. He didn't understand how she knew, but he could tell by the broken hearted looked she was giving him that she knew everything._

 _"Draco..."_

"Draco!" He blinked and realized he had gotten lost in thought.

"Sorry, I..."

"Are you alright?" She asked, titling her head to the side.

Draco nodded quickly and took a deep breath through his nose.

"Yeah, Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry I got lost. It's been a while since I have been here. Think I was maybe 14? Place looks bigger than I remember, which is strange. You would think as a person grows, small places get smaller."

"That's because it is bigger." Stella explained walking over to her desk to sit in her chair. She gestured for him to take one of the two seat in front of her desk, which Draco obliged. "It expanded some time ago. After the second war it became a bit more important, we work with the improper use of magic office a lot. These things come hand in hand usually."

Draco gave her a bored look. "Why ever would you want to work in this bloody department?"

Stella laughed and shook her head. "I don't. This is just a stepping stone. A foot in the right direction. What I want, is to work on level nine.

"The department of mysteries?"

"That's the one."

"Careful Simmons, your Ravenclaw is showing." A smile crept onto Draco face. "That would be the perfect place for you really. You always did have a passion to know the unknown."

What felt like only a few minutes of conversation soon became a few hours. Their words were light as Stella would continue to talk as she filed more paperwork and stamped a few documents. She told him how after the war she finished her schooling in America at Llvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She went on about how they too had sorting houses and in it she was sorted into Thunderbird. Something that surprised her considering she expected to end up in the Ravenclaw equivalent, the Horned Serpent. Draco explained to her how after the castle was made open to students again, he had finished his schooling at Hogwarts. He went on about how his last year there was uncomfortable to put it lightly. That everyone seemed to want to go on a if the war had not happened, like everything was normal. The house of Slytherin had a reputation to begin with but that last year...if you were in Slytherin, you were a bad person. He assumed things were different now of course. Time had passed and a new generation occupied the school, but if one thing was for sure Draco was happy to not have to go back when the summer came.

"Who did you end up marrying? If you don't mind me asking." Draco inquired.

A scoff escaped Stella and she looked at Draco as if she couldn't believe he even had to ask.

"Timothy."

"Timothy? Timothy Anderson?" Draco raised his eyebrows and looked at her in surprise.

"Why is that so shocking? We dated forever!"

Draco scowled at her and crossed his arms. "You dated on and off again forever, that's not the same thing, the guy couldn't _spell_ commitment."

Stella gave a harsh shrug and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, clearly, seeing that we got divorced and all."

"He cheated?" Draco asked suddenly very serious.

Shaking her head no, Stella gave a sigh. "No, he didn't cheat...he just...lost interest I guess."

"I wish I could say I was surprised. Not that your not interesting Stella." He cleared waving his hands around. "With your...great personality and...super cool paperwork job..."

"Nice." Stella deadpanned.

"All I am saying is they guy was a flake. He was a flake in school, he was bound to be a flake as an adult. I know that may have been hard for you to see with all the charm and broad shoulders, but If I recall correctly, and I didn't want to say this but...I told you so. "

"And..I knew that, sorta. When I ran into him once I got back home I just thought, maybe things would be different. I never minded the flakiness in school. We were kids, we didn't need to commit to each other forever, it was just fun. In the end he always came back to me, so I guess I just thought maybe there was a reason for it."

"How tragically romantic of you."

"Shut up. If _I_ recall correctly, you had quite a few admirers when we were in school as well. That is until they got to know you and threw up in their own mouths." She jabbed with a smirk.

"I was prince charming." Draco retorted.

"You were an ass."

A slight chuckle escaped Draco.

"Yeah, I kinda was. You stuck around though, so I couldn't have been all that bad."

Stella nodded a little and folded her hands.

"I suppose I always have had a soft spot for damaged goods."

"Broken am I? You going to fix me?" Draco asked, his voice a slightly harsh at her description.

"I'm not trying to fix you; I don't think you need to be fixed. I'm not trying to turn you into someone else. I only want you to be who you already are. Because I think I know the real you. I think I've seen him."

Draco says nothing, his chest tightening a little.

"I don't care what anyone else says about you," Stella tells him. "I think you're a good person."

She stands from her desk and puts on her coat and walks over to Draco still sitting in the chair, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Even if your real shit at showing it sometimes." Stella then makes her way to the door. Draco stands and turns to face her.

"Where are you going?"

Looking over her shoulder, Stella raises her right arm and points to her watch.

"Time to go home."

Alright so there is the second chapter. I am trying to do this while staying true to the timeline as best I can. This story is supposed to be around 5 years after Hogwarts and being that everyone was in Hogwarts in the 90's this would make the year 2003-2004ish So of course things like music and electronic devices will be different. I don't know...but please tell me if you guys are liking it so far, I do love to read comments.


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